Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Magazine Needs To Check Facts On BSE

Magazine Needs To Check Facts On BSE



Oct. 10, 2012 4:59am by Amanda Radke in BEEF Daily



A July 2012 report in Consumer Reports Magazine negatively attacks beef industry.



Just as BPI’s lean finely textured beef was unfairly characterized as “pink slime” and the H1N1 flu strain was dubbed “swine flu” by the media, the beef industry has one longer-lived slur. That is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) as “mad cow disease.”



The U.S. beef industry has had four cases of BSE -- the latest was discovered last spring in a California dairy cow, and it never entered the food supply. The fact is, however, that humans can’t contract the human form of BSE (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) from eating meat such as steaks and roasts. BSE in cattle is found only in central nervous tissue and not in the actual meat of the animal. And USDA has a complex system of regulatory controls and interlocking safeguards to prevent the entry of contaminated meat into the food supply.



Still, many consumers are still concerned about how safe their beef is. Undoubtedly, their concerns probably stem from statements like this one that appeared in the July 2102 issue of Consumer Reports (CR) magazine:




“We are turning cows into cannibals, the practice that started the mad cow problem in the first place," says Michael Hansen, senior scientist at CR, on giving cows feed that contains poultry litter, cattle brains and blood. A cow in California tested positive for mad cow disease in April.



This quote appeared in CR’s “Viewpoint” section, a page of the magazine that highlights efforts of the Consumers Union, the policy and action arm of CR to improve the marketplace.



Thanks to reader Errol Wells of Elba, NE, who brought this article to my attention. Wells is a firm believer in responding to negative articles in the media and being a proactive advocate for agriculture.



A Closer Look: Letter From Errol




Upon reading the article, Wells approached CR; however, the magazine has yet to respond to his concerns about the inflammatory statements made about the beef industry.



“Despite my repeated demands for retraction of this blatantly false article and apology to the America’s cattlemen and women, they have not done so. Hopefully, some of you will take Consumers Reports to task for their false article. I hope that I am not the only one willing to do battle with them," Wells says.



Errol, you certainly aren’t alone in your frustration; I, too, was upset to see this published in a consumer magazine, so I’ve drafted up my own letter to send to CR. Here’s what I had to say:



Dear CR Editor:



I was disappointed to see your statements regarding beef safety and BSE in the July 2012 issue of your magazine. As a cattle rancher and beef lover, I can assure you that our nation’s beef supply is safe from pasture to plate.



Calling cattle “cannibals” is completely false. Yes, BSE can be spread through certain cattle feed ingredients, but those have been banned since 1997. USDA check points, regulatory controls and interlocking safeguards ensure that even if a case of BSE is detected, there is zero chance of the meat from that animal ever entering the food supply.



From bseinfo.org, “In 2007, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) classified the U.S. as a controlled risk country in regard to BSE, meaning U.S. regulatory controls are effective and fresh beef and products from cattle of all ages is safe.



“For more than 20 years the USDA has been developing and implementing a robust system of safeguards to ensure a BSE-free food supply. Tissues that could potentially carry BSE in an animal – including the brain and spinal cord – must be removed from cattle prior to processing, and therefore are not allowed into the food supply. This step along with other safeguards ensures BSE has no affect on public health.



“The U.S. began an active BSE surveillance program in 1990 and, since its inception, more than 1 million cattle at greatest risk for BSE have been tested. USDA’s ongoing BSE surveillance program tests approximately 40,000 high-risk cattle annually. This program is rigorous and exceeds international guidelines by 10 times.”



I think your readers deserve to hear the facts about BSE and beef safety, so that they can enjoy a steak without guilt or fear.



Respectfully submitted,



Amanda Radke Beef enthusiast, cattle rancher Mitchell, SD



If you are as frustrated about this report as I and Wells are, write your own letter and fill out the provided form here to share your concerns with the magazine. Under "CR Producets/Services," selecte "Consumer Reports magazine" and click on "Letter to the Editor." Let CR know that we won’t tolerate false reporting.









THERE IS NO ONE MORE OUT OF TOUCH WITH SCIENCE ON THE BSE TSE PRION DISEASE THAN BEEF MAGAZINE, when you are going by TSE BSE prion science that is over a decade old.



let’s look at some recent scientific facts for a change, shall we.



re-Magazine Needs To Check Facts On BSE



r e a l l y ???




MAD COW USDA ATYPICAL L-TYPE BASE BSE, the rest of the story...



***Oral Transmission of L-type Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in Primate Model









***Infectivity in skeletal muscle of BASE-infected cattle









***feedstuffs- It also suggests a similar cause or source for atypical BSE in these countries.









***Also, a link is suspected between atypical BSE and some apparently sporadic cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.








The present study demonstrated successful intraspecies transmission of H-type BSE to cattle and the distribution and immunolabeling patterns of PrPSc in the brain of the H-type BSE-challenged cattle. TSE agent virulence can be minimally defined by oral transmission of different TSE agents (C-type, L-type, and H-type BSE agents) [59]. Oral transmission studies with H-type BSE infected cattle have been initiated and are underway to provide information regarding the extent of similarity in the immunohistochemical and molecular features before and after transmission.



In addition, the present data will support risk assessments in some peripheral tissues derived from cattle affected with H-type BSE.









Friday, May 11, 2012



Experimental H-type bovine spongiform encephalopathy characterized by plaques and glial- and stellate-type prion protein deposits



***support risk assessments in some peripheral tissues derived from cattle affected with H-type BSE









please note, one decade (10 years), post USA mad cow partial and voluntary mad cow feed ban of August 4, 1997, the USA was still feeding cows to cows, with some 10,000,000 pounds of banned blood laced meat and bone meal fed out into commerce in 2007. 2006 was a banner year for mad cow protein into commerce as well.



please see banned mad cow feed in commerce USA 1997 to 2007 ;





2007



10,000,000+ LBS. of PROHIBITED BANNED MAD COW FEED I.E. BLOOD LACED MBM IN COMMERCE USA 2007



Date: March 21, 2007 at 2:27 pm PST


RECALLS AND FIELD CORRECTIONS: VETERINARY MEDICINES -- CLASS II


PRODUCT


Bulk cattle feed made with recalled Darling's 85% Blood Meal, Flash Dried, Recall # V-024-2007


CODE


Cattle feed delivered between 01/12/2007 and 01/26/2007


RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER


Pfeiffer, Arno, Inc, Greenbush, WI. by conversation on February 5, 2007.


Firm initiated recall is ongoing.


REASON


Blood meal used to make cattle feed was recalled because it was cross- contaminated with prohibited bovine meat and bone meal that had been manufactured on common equipment and labeling did not bear cautionary BSE statement.


VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE


42,090 lbs.


DISTRIBUTION


WI


___________________________________


PRODUCT


Custom dairy premix products:


MNM ALL PURPOSE Pellet, HILLSIDE/CDL Prot- Buffer Meal, LEE, M.-CLOSE UP PX Pellet, HIGH DESERT/ GHC LACT Meal, TATARKA, M CUST PROT Meal, SUNRIDGE/CDL PROTEIN Blend, LOURENZO, K PVM DAIRY Meal, DOUBLE B DAIRY/GHC LAC Mineral, WEST PIONT/GHC CLOSEUP Mineral, WEST POINT/GHC LACT Meal, JENKS, J/COMPASS PROTEIN Meal, COPPINI - 8# SPECIAL DAIRY Mix, GULICK, L-LACT Meal (Bulk), TRIPLE J - PROTEIN/LACTATION, ROCK CREEK/GHC MILK Mineral, BETTENCOURT/GHC S.SIDE MK-MN, BETTENCOURT #1/GHC MILK MINR, V&C DAIRY/GHC LACT Meal, VEENSTRA, F/GHC LACT Meal, SMUTNY, A- BYPASS ML W/SMARTA, Recall # V-025-2007


CODE


The firm does not utilize a code - only shipping documentation with commodity and weights identified.


RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER


Rangen, Inc, Buhl, ID, by letters on February 13 and 14, 2007. Firm initiated recall is complete.


REASON


Products manufactured from bulk feed containing blood meal that was cross contaminated with prohibited meat and bone meal and the labeling did not bear cautionary BSE statement.


VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE


9,997,976 lbs.


DISTRIBUTION


ID and NV


END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR MARCH 21, 2007








please see 2006 and more here ;





Saturday, August 4, 2012



Final Feed Investigation Summary - California BSE Case - July 2012









Wednesday, May 30, 2012



PO-028: Oral transmission of L-type bovine spongiform encephalopathy (L-BSE) in primate model Microcebus murinus









Wednesday, May 2, 2012



ARS FLIP FLOPS ON SRM REMOVAL FOR ATYPICAL L-TYPE BASE BSE RISK HUMAN AND ANIMAL HEALTH








==============================================



Saturday, August 4, 2012



***Final Feed Investigation Summary - California BSE Case - July 2012






=============================================





SUMMARY REPORT CALIFORNIA BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY CASE INVESTIGATION JULY 2012



Summary Report BSE 2012



Executive Summary







Saturday, August 4, 2012



Update from APHIS Regarding Release of the Final Report on the BSE Epidemiological Investigation







Sunday, May 6, 2012



Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Mad Cow Disease, BSE May 2, 2012 IOWA State University OIE









Friday, May 4, 2012



May 2, 2012: Update from APHIS Regarding a Detection of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in the United States








CENSORSHIP IS A TERRIBLE THING $$$




Canada has had a COVER-UP policy of mad cow disease since about the 17th case OR 18th case of mad cow disease. AFTER THAT, all FOIA request were ignored $$$



THIS proves there is indeed an epidemic of mad cow disease in North America, and it has been covered up for years and years, if not for decades, and it’s getting worse $$$




Thursday, February 10, 2011



TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY REPORT UPDATE CANADA FEBRUARY 2011 and how to hide mad cow disease in Canada Current as of: 2011-01-31








Wednesday, August 11, 2010



REPORT ON THE INVESTIGATION OF THE SIXTEENTH CASE OF BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY (BSE) IN CANADA








Thursday, August 19, 2010



REPORT ON THE INVESTIGATION OF THE SEVENTEENTH CASE OF BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY (BSE) IN CANADA








Friday, March 4, 2011



Alberta dairy cow found with mad cow disease








Reasons for the New Regulation Order No. 23 (as well as amending Order No. 149) of the State Committee for Veterinary Medicine name BSE as the reason for new import requirement. The legal title for Order No. 23 is "On Urgent Measures Aimed at Prevention and Elimination of BSE and Other Prion Infections in Cattle”. Neither Order explains how the threat of introduction of BSE can be addressed through the inspection of producers of all products of animal origin including fish, dairy products, poultry and pork. It is not clear what other concerns are addressed through the proposed inspections. Formal Notification of Trading Partners On August 3rd, Ukraine's Notification and Enquiry Point issued a legal Notification G/SPS/N/UKR/3/Rev.1 found on the Official WTO Website (Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures)








P.4.23



Transmission of atypical BSE in humanized mouse models



Liuting Qing1, Wenquan Zou1, Cristina Casalone2, Martin Groschup3, Miroslaw Polak4, Maria Caramelli2, Pierluigi Gambetti1, Juergen Richt5, Qingzhong Kong1 1Case Western Reserve University, USA; 2Instituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale, Italy; 3Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Germany; 4National Veterinary Research Institute, Poland; 5Kansas State University (Previously at USDA National Animal Disease Center), USA



Background: Classical BSE is a world-wide prion disease in cattle, and the classical BSE strain (BSE-C) has led to over 200 cases of clinical human infection (variant CJD). Atypical BSE cases have been discovered in three continents since 2004; they include the L-type (also named BASE), the H-type, and the first reported case of naturally occurring BSE with mutated bovine PRNP (termed BSE-M). The public health risks posed by atypical BSE were largely undefined.



Objectives: To investigate these atypical BSE types in terms of their transmissibility and phenotypes in humanized mice. Methods: Transgenic mice expressing human PrP were inoculated with several classical (C-type) and atypical (L-, H-, or Mtype) BSE isolates, and the transmission rate, incubation time, characteristics and distribution of PrPSc, symptoms, and histopathology were or will be examined and compared.



Results: Sixty percent of BASE-inoculated humanized mice became infected with minimal spongiosis and an average incubation time of 20-22 months, whereas only one of the C-type BSE-inoculated mice developed prion disease after more than 2 years. Protease-resistant PrPSc in BASE-infected humanized Tg mouse brains was biochemically different from bovine BASE or sCJD. PrPSc was also detected in the spleen of 22% of BASE-infected humanized mice, but not in those infected with sCJD. Secondary transmission of BASE in the humanized mice led to a small reduction in incubation time.*** The atypical BSE-H strain is also transmissible with distinct phenotypes in the humanized mice, but no BSE-M transmission has been observed so far.



Discussion: Our results demonstrate that BASE is more virulent than classical BSE, has a lymphotropic phenotype, and displays a modest transmission barrier in our humanized mice. BSE-H is also transmissible in our humanized Tg mice. The possibility of more than two atypical BSE strains will be discussed.



Supported by NINDS NS052319, NIA AG14359, and NIH AI 77774.









P26 TRANSMISSION OF ATYPICAL BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY (BSE) IN HUMANIZED MOUSE MODELS



Liuting Qing1, Fusong Chen1, Michael Payne1, Wenquan Zou1, Cristina Casalone2, Martin Groschup3, Miroslaw Polak4, Maria Caramelli2, Pierluigi Gambetti1, Juergen Richt5*, and Qingzhong Kong1 1Department of Pathology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA; 2CEA, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale, Italy; 3Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Germany; 4National Veterinary Research Institute, Poland; 5Kansas State University, Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology Department, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA. *Previous address: USDA National Animal Disease Center, Ames, IA 50010, USA



Classical BSE is a world-wide prion disease in cattle, and the classical BSE strain (BSE-C) has led to over 200 cases of clinical human infection (variant CJD). Two atypical BSE strains, BSE-L (also named BASE) and BSE-H, have been discovered in three continents since 2004. The first case of naturally occurring BSE with mutated bovine PrP gene (termed BSE-M) was also found in 2006 in the USA. The transmissibility and phenotypes of these atypical BSE strains/isolates in humans were unknown. We have inoculated humanized transgenic mice with classical and atypical BSE strains (BSE-C, BSE-L, BSE-H) and the BSE-M isolate. We have found that the atypical BSE-L strain is much more virulent than the classical BSE-C.*** The atypical BSE-H strain is also transmissible in the humanized transgenic mice with distinct phenotype, but no transmission has been observed for the BSE-M isolate so far.



III International Symposium on THE NEW PRION BIOLOGY: BASIC SCIENCE, DIAGNOSIS AND THERAPY 2 - 4 APRIL 2009, VENEZIA (ITALY)












I ask Professor Kong ;



Thursday, December 04, 2008 3:37 PM Subject: RE: re--Chronic Wating Disease (CWD) and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathies (BSE): Public Health Risk Assessment



''IS the h-BSE more virulent than typical BSE as well, or the same as cBSE, or less virulent than cBSE? just curious.....''



Professor Kong reply ;



.....snip



''As to the H-BSE, we do not have sufficient data to say one way or another, but we have found that H-BSE can infect humans. I hope we could publish these data once the study is complete. Thanks for your interest.''



Best regards,


Qingzhong Kong, PhD Associate Professor Department of Pathology Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH 44106 USA




END...TSS




Thursday, December 04, 2008 2:37 PM


"we have found that H-BSE can infect humans."


personal communication with Professor Kong. ...TSS




BSE-H is also transmissible in our humanized Tg mice.


The possibility of more than two atypical BSE strains will be discussed.


Supported by NINDS NS052319, NIA AG14359, and NIH AI 77774.














2011 Monday, September 26, 2011


L-BSE BASE prion and atypical sporadic CJD








Tuesday, June 26, 2012


Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease Human TSE report update North America, Canada, Mexico, and USDA PRION UNIT as of May 18, 2012


type determination pending Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (tdpCJD), is on the rise in Canada and the USA








Friday, August 24, 2012


Iatrogenic prion diseases in humans: an update








Monday, July 23, 2012


The National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center July 2012








let's take a closer look at this new prionpathy or prionopathy, and then let's look at the g-h-BSEalabama mad cow.





see all this and much more updated science on the TSE prion disease here ;





Saturday, October 6, 2012



TRANSMISSION, DIFFERENTIATION, AND PATHOBIOLOGY OF TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES 2011 Annual Report








like I said, THERE IS NO ONE MORE OUT OF TOUCH WITH SCIENCE ON THE BSE TSE PRION DISEASE THAN BEEF MAGAZINE, when you are going by TSE BSE prion science that is over a decade old. ...




my opinion as layperson. ...





TSS

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